Researching a Legend Part 3
North on Fourth and left on Fremont
I paused at the corner of Fourth and Allen and took out my 1881 street map to refresh my memory just to get a better idea of how it looked then. Some of the prominent landmarks I’d read about were still there some were not.
Walking north toward Fremont Street Hafford’s Corner Saloon was first on my right with the Brown Hotel, Gun Shop and News Stand farther along.
On the left was an Assayer’s office, Zeckendorf Building, a vacant lot, the New Orleans Restaurant and Saloon with Keatney’s Drug Store near the end of the block.
As you approach Fremont the US Post Office is the last building on the right then as you turn left into Fremont the first building on your right is the Courthouse. Some of the other buildings along that side of Fremont Street are the Exchange Building, Law Offices and Addie Bourland’s Dress Shop. On the left was the Papago Cash Store, which was under construction at the time of the shootout. Bauer’s Butcher Shop, Buck Fly’s Boarding House and Photographic Studio and then the infamous vacant lot where the shootout took place.
Once I got to the location I stepped off the yardage space that the gunfight was confined to. My immediate thoughts then turned to -- who had the best view of the fight? Of course it would be the combatants, but three of them were dead and the others you’d expect to give an account favoring their side.
Onlooker witnesses were of course possible. There was a vacant house on one side of the combat area; Buck Fly’s buildings were on the other. As I surveyed the area where the fight took place, I thought about the people that might have been looking out the windows of either of those buildings and chuckled. I bet they would have moved like a jackrabbit taking cover when the first shot rang out. And nobody in his right mind would have stayed by the window to watch the fight.
I looked at my map again and turned toward the other side of the street. According to the map Addie Bourland’s Dress Shop was adjacent to Buck Fly’s Boarding House and possibly far enough away from the action that a potential witness would not have been too frightened to watch the gunfight.
But today nothing remained of the dress shop, only a vacant lot. I walked across the street and took a position where the front window was probably located. And when I looked toward the vacant lot I was amazed at the view an observer would have had. A front row seat at the gunfight of the century. Was Addie Bourland at her shop window when all hell broke loose?
That was a question I didn’t need to answer right away although I’d heard a local historian talk about Addie Bourland’s testimony during the Spicer hearing. For me though, I would put a memo in my briefcase with all my other Tombstone notes that would be sorted out and corroborated later.
I had several more questions to ask about Tombstone but I was getting restless and decided to put them off until another visit.
Next stop Griffin, Georgia.
(To be continued)
‘The Goring Collection’
‘Could I please have my painting back?’ A personal note from Miriam.
Click here.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/czech-republic/090630/restitution-property-nazis
Prologue Part 3
Nothing was spelled out about Jacob’s transfer until a meeting with his regular KGB contact; a heavyset man named Alexei. They always met in a park at the end of a promontory overlooking the Baltic Sea. It was there during one a routine meeting when Alexei explained, in great detail, the KGB's plan for Jacob’s defection to the West. The escape would be timed to coincide with the 1960 Rome Olympics. Jacob was given a job as an assistant gymnastics instructor, and following a formal request Natalie was allowed to accompany her brother to the West.
The defection was set to take place during an Aeroflot charter flight in route from Potsdam to Rome. They faked a hijacking, and the charter flight made an emergency landing at London’s Heathrow Airport. The plane had no sooner parked on the tarmac when Jacob and Natalie made their exit and asked for political asylum in the United States. Then following extensive questioning by British authorities they were granted their wish and turned over to the American CIA.
Jacob and Natalie Heimann were granted political asylum, taken to the United States, and spent the next two months answering questions at the CIA facility located in Langley, Virginia. The agency looked into Jacob's background and determined that he was a possible KGB plant. However, the timing was right, they needed someone from the Eastern bloc to penetrate the inner circle of the Communist Party on the West Coast. And in spite of some reservations about his possible double agent status, Jacob was hired as a West Coast operative.
The CIA offered Natalie a job with the outfit, but she let them know that she was not interested. Following their stay at Langley, Jacob and Natalie traveled to San Francisco by train and rented an apartment on Clay Street.
Jacob’s KGB contact, code-name David, setup a series of meetings to introduce him to members of the West Coast Communist establishment. The CIA assigned him an agent, code name Luke, and while walking his double agent tight rope Jacob judiciously passed along a stream of dubious information to Luke regarding the communist underground in America.
Jacob spoke perfect English, but with a European accent. And with his German and Russian language skills he quickly became a popular guest at liberal functions. Jacob accepted all the invitations he could work into his schedule and in the early days listened to a diatribe of complaints from the hate America crowd. However, he listened patiently, taking his time, and then with the help of his KGB handlers drew on his credits from Rostock University, Jacob applied for and was offered a professor's seat at the College of California at Oakland.
During the early years in America Jacob’s work with the CIA and KGB, lectures and diplomatic functions took him all over the west with Hollywood recurring most frequently on his schedule. Those Hollywood meetings were the most contentious, and oftentimes he found himself in the middle of black list controversies. Although the House Un-American Activities Committee meetings had taken place in the late forties and early fifties the fall out from those hearings was still evident in Hollywood into the late sixties.
Over time Natalie accepted the American lifestyle and even decided to become a citizen. She begged her brother to join her in the Citizenship Program. Jacob argued, but Natalie was persuasive, and eventually talked her brother into going along.
It was during that period when Natalie met and fell in love with Morton Bromfield, a young intern working at San Francisco General Hospital. When their romance progressed toward a wedding, it was decided that the ceremony would be held at Santa Barbara, the groom's hometown
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook
Did you ever sit at the keyboard with a complete feeling of inadequacy? Maybe it’s borderline writers block and we all catch that bug every now and then.
So for all of you that suffer that affliction, from time to time, I thought I’d repeat of an earlier Writers Notebook post
.
You have committed to a project, finished the basic research and character prep work and you’re all set to begin writing. Suddenly you’re overcome with anxiety – you’ve got a knot the size of a baseball in your stomach. Stop!
You are not alone. It might give you some comfort to know that John Steinbeck experienced some of those same anxious moments. In one of his letters written in February 1936, which was included in his ‘A Life in Letters’ Steinbeck said, ‘I have to start [writing] and am scared to death as usual – miserable sick feeling of inadequacy.’ Then in the very next sentence he said, ‘I’ll love it once I get down to work.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
A Tourist in Tombstone -- Jacob and the KGB
Researching a Legend Part 2
On the Ground in Tombstone
I was excited to actually see the town of Tombstone as I drove past the city limits sign. I found the motel I had booked, checked in and unloaded my bags. I doubt that I spent ten minutes in the room. I walked out to those dusty streets of Tombstone just to get a sense of place. The first day I didn’t carry a notebook or recorder, didn’t want to inhibit the atmosphere. All I wanted to do was walk, look and listen to the sights and sounds of tourist chatter and local small talk.
From reading and studying maps I had an idea of how the place looked in 1881, and of course the streets were the same today, but the buildings were a different story. Some of the 1881 buildings no longer existed and some had been refurbished. But not so many as to break that image a tourist might form of how it was.
Today’s Tombstone is not quite a circus, but more like the old county fairs once were with barkers hawking the next reenactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, or ‘Come on down to the Bird Cage Theatre and take a walk into the past.’ Then you spot a museum that sells the old Tombstone story and pictures of the Earps and Holliday along with the dead outlaws resting in their coffins.
Locals dressed in costumes impersonating some of the main players in the 1881 shootout Wyatt or Morgan Earp, Doc Holliday and Ike Clanton, were among those I saw. Those local performers would engage small groups of tourist then talk about and answer questions from their character’s point of view. I listened to those I encountered and heard several good exchanges between local performers and well-read tourists.
Late that evening, back at my motel, I could still recall the cacophony of street sounds and talks about the way it was from that afternoon experience. But somewhere underneath I had a sense that old Tombstone of 1881 was alive and well. And if I looked and listened hard enough I’d find a way to sort out the truth from the myth.
I took out my maps to get an idea about the country surrounding Tombstone and the places I wanted to see. Of course many of the small towns and mining camps no longer existed, but I still wanted to find those locations if for nothing more than place and their location relative to Tombstone.
It was early in the morning when I drove southwest out of Tombstone on the old Charleston Road toward the San Pedro River. As I drove along enjoying the cool morning I thought about the silver mines that were the original draw to Tombstone. During the 1880’s wagon roads crisscrossed the desert between mine and mill. Many of those roads wound up at the Charleston mill, but today there were few signs of that once flourishing mining industry.
I stopped short of the San Pedro River Bridge, found an off road parking space, got out of the car and began walking. There was a small stream running along the riverbed, which supplied enough water to sustain green vegetation within about 15 or 20 yards of the stream. I walked north following the San Pedro far enough to get a look at Charleston, or at least the few remaining adobe ruins that were once part of Charleston.
There was another site that interested me farther up the river, the Clanton ranch. However, from what I’d read no evidence remained that it was ever there so I turned around and walked back to the car.
I then drove over the bridge to the outskirts of Sierra Vista, turned south past Nicksville and Hereford before arriving at Bisbee. No disappointment there. The small town of Bisbee is steeped in mining history and is known more for copper than Tombstone was for silver.
And the locals, just as they were in Tombstone, were eager to engage a stranger in conversation and tell the Bisbee mining story.
While I ate lunch I listened to tourist enthuse about the role Bisbee copper played in the first cable link across the Atlantic. Following lunch I drove back to Tombstone and stopped by the Epitaph Newspaper where I picked up several reprint copies of the old 1881 editions. Then I walked across the street to Red Marie’s bookstore and purchased a copy of ‘Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal’ by Stuart Lake and a copy of ‘Doc Holliday’ by John Myers Myers.
Then I turned my attention to Fourth and Allen, the place where the Earps and Holliday started their walk with the intent of disarming the cowboys. When I got there I stood collecting my thoughts for a few minutes and then followed the same route the Earps and Holliday took on October 26, 1881 on their walk to the OK Corral.
(To be continued)
‘The Goring Collection’
Prologue Part 2
Jacob and Natalie lived out the war years in Rostock as Fritz Heimann’s children. Their father’s Pissarro hung on the living room wall and became a larger than life beacon of hope, for the youngsters, which helped to sustain the memory of their parents. But near the end of the war that symbol was shattered when a Nazi Special Detail came and took the painting away
At the end of the war, with Jacob and Natalie still expecting their parents to come home Fritz Heimann finally told them exactly what had happened. “Your mother and father died at the concentration camp at Buchenwald.” Jacob’s shock at hearing the truth led him to believe that Fritz Heimann was telling a cruel joke, but Natalie recognized it for what it was and wept for days. Eventually Jacob’s questions were answered and over a period of time by using physical activities and studies, as a diversion, the hurt he felt at the loss of his parents began to wane.
Following the war Rostock became a part of the Soviet Bloc, and as a consequence the children grew up in East Germany.
Jacob was bright and always near the top of his class. He entered the University of Rostock, and as a way to break from the past he immersed himself into his studies and absorbed the indoctrination to the Communist System. Jacob was especially interested in the political, economic, and social theories advanced by Marx and Engel’s. It was during his sophomore year when he first began to think about a possible career in politics.
But while Jacob was consumed by the socialists’ ideology, it offered no appeal to Natalie. During those post war years she was desperately searching for her Jewish roots, and eventually joined a small clandestine group that had begun to study the Torah.
Soon after Jacob’s graduation, from the University of Rostock, Communist Party officials looked at his scholastic achievements and offered him a position with the KGB.
He accepted and following his preliminary indoctrination into the agency he was ordered to Moscow for special training.
Jacob’s trip to Moscow was exciting and filled with many challenges and hard work, the kind of environment in which he excelled. He attended classes and participated in exercises taught by instructors that were experts on the subjects. Many of the instructors were internationally known spies that notoriety had forced to retire from service.
By the time Jacob completed his course and left Moscow for his return to Rostock he had every intention of joining the secret world of intelligence gathering and espionage, but those ideas were quickly derailed. For when Jacob returned to Rostock new orders awaited him. He would be moving to the United States and assigned to work with the American Communist Party, from a position, later to be determined, in academia. Jacob didn’t question his assignment, but he was disappointed in the new job since it didn’t allow him to become a part of the Intelligence Service.
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
More Sidney Sheldon on his approach to the novel.
‘I dictate the first draft of my novels to a secretary. When the first draft is typed – and it usually runs between one thousand and twelve hundred pages – I go back to page one and start a rewrite. Not a polish – a complete rewrite. I will often throw away a hundred pages at a time, get rid of a half dozen characters and add new ones. Along the way, I constantly refine and tighten. When I get to the end of the book again, I go back to page one. I repeat this process as many as a dozen times, spending anywhere from a year to a year and a half rewriting and finally polishing, until the manuscript is as good as I know how to make it.’ Sidney Sheldon.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
On the Ground in Tombstone
I was excited to actually see the town of Tombstone as I drove past the city limits sign. I found the motel I had booked, checked in and unloaded my bags. I doubt that I spent ten minutes in the room. I walked out to those dusty streets of Tombstone just to get a sense of place. The first day I didn’t carry a notebook or recorder, didn’t want to inhibit the atmosphere. All I wanted to do was walk, look and listen to the sights and sounds of tourist chatter and local small talk.
From reading and studying maps I had an idea of how the place looked in 1881, and of course the streets were the same today, but the buildings were a different story. Some of the 1881 buildings no longer existed and some had been refurbished. But not so many as to break that image a tourist might form of how it was.
Today’s Tombstone is not quite a circus, but more like the old county fairs once were with barkers hawking the next reenactment of the Gunfight at the OK Corral, or ‘Come on down to the Bird Cage Theatre and take a walk into the past.’ Then you spot a museum that sells the old Tombstone story and pictures of the Earps and Holliday along with the dead outlaws resting in their coffins.
Locals dressed in costumes impersonating some of the main players in the 1881 shootout Wyatt or Morgan Earp, Doc Holliday and Ike Clanton, were among those I saw. Those local performers would engage small groups of tourist then talk about and answer questions from their character’s point of view. I listened to those I encountered and heard several good exchanges between local performers and well-read tourists.
Late that evening, back at my motel, I could still recall the cacophony of street sounds and talks about the way it was from that afternoon experience. But somewhere underneath I had a sense that old Tombstone of 1881 was alive and well. And if I looked and listened hard enough I’d find a way to sort out the truth from the myth.
I took out my maps to get an idea about the country surrounding Tombstone and the places I wanted to see. Of course many of the small towns and mining camps no longer existed, but I still wanted to find those locations if for nothing more than place and their location relative to Tombstone.
It was early in the morning when I drove southwest out of Tombstone on the old Charleston Road toward the San Pedro River. As I drove along enjoying the cool morning I thought about the silver mines that were the original draw to Tombstone. During the 1880’s wagon roads crisscrossed the desert between mine and mill. Many of those roads wound up at the Charleston mill, but today there were few signs of that once flourishing mining industry.
I stopped short of the San Pedro River Bridge, found an off road parking space, got out of the car and began walking. There was a small stream running along the riverbed, which supplied enough water to sustain green vegetation within about 15 or 20 yards of the stream. I walked north following the San Pedro far enough to get a look at Charleston, or at least the few remaining adobe ruins that were once part of Charleston.
There was another site that interested me farther up the river, the Clanton ranch. However, from what I’d read no evidence remained that it was ever there so I turned around and walked back to the car.
I then drove over the bridge to the outskirts of Sierra Vista, turned south past Nicksville and Hereford before arriving at Bisbee. No disappointment there. The small town of Bisbee is steeped in mining history and is known more for copper than Tombstone was for silver.
And the locals, just as they were in Tombstone, were eager to engage a stranger in conversation and tell the Bisbee mining story.
While I ate lunch I listened to tourist enthuse about the role Bisbee copper played in the first cable link across the Atlantic. Following lunch I drove back to Tombstone and stopped by the Epitaph Newspaper where I picked up several reprint copies of the old 1881 editions. Then I walked across the street to Red Marie’s bookstore and purchased a copy of ‘Wyatt Earp Frontier Marshal’ by Stuart Lake and a copy of ‘Doc Holliday’ by John Myers Myers.
Then I turned my attention to Fourth and Allen, the place where the Earps and Holliday started their walk with the intent of disarming the cowboys. When I got there I stood collecting my thoughts for a few minutes and then followed the same route the Earps and Holliday took on October 26, 1881 on their walk to the OK Corral.
(To be continued)
‘The Goring Collection’
Prologue Part 2
Jacob and Natalie lived out the war years in Rostock as Fritz Heimann’s children. Their father’s Pissarro hung on the living room wall and became a larger than life beacon of hope, for the youngsters, which helped to sustain the memory of their parents. But near the end of the war that symbol was shattered when a Nazi Special Detail came and took the painting away
At the end of the war, with Jacob and Natalie still expecting their parents to come home Fritz Heimann finally told them exactly what had happened. “Your mother and father died at the concentration camp at Buchenwald.” Jacob’s shock at hearing the truth led him to believe that Fritz Heimann was telling a cruel joke, but Natalie recognized it for what it was and wept for days. Eventually Jacob’s questions were answered and over a period of time by using physical activities and studies, as a diversion, the hurt he felt at the loss of his parents began to wane.
Following the war Rostock became a part of the Soviet Bloc, and as a consequence the children grew up in East Germany.
Jacob was bright and always near the top of his class. He entered the University of Rostock, and as a way to break from the past he immersed himself into his studies and absorbed the indoctrination to the Communist System. Jacob was especially interested in the political, economic, and social theories advanced by Marx and Engel’s. It was during his sophomore year when he first began to think about a possible career in politics.
But while Jacob was consumed by the socialists’ ideology, it offered no appeal to Natalie. During those post war years she was desperately searching for her Jewish roots, and eventually joined a small clandestine group that had begun to study the Torah.
Soon after Jacob’s graduation, from the University of Rostock, Communist Party officials looked at his scholastic achievements and offered him a position with the KGB.
He accepted and following his preliminary indoctrination into the agency he was ordered to Moscow for special training.
Jacob’s trip to Moscow was exciting and filled with many challenges and hard work, the kind of environment in which he excelled. He attended classes and participated in exercises taught by instructors that were experts on the subjects. Many of the instructors were internationally known spies that notoriety had forced to retire from service.
By the time Jacob completed his course and left Moscow for his return to Rostock he had every intention of joining the secret world of intelligence gathering and espionage, but those ideas were quickly derailed. For when Jacob returned to Rostock new orders awaited him. He would be moving to the United States and assigned to work with the American Communist Party, from a position, later to be determined, in academia. Jacob didn’t question his assignment, but he was disappointed in the new job since it didn’t allow him to become a part of the Intelligence Service.
(To be continued)
Writers Notebook:
More Sidney Sheldon on his approach to the novel.
‘I dictate the first draft of my novels to a secretary. When the first draft is typed – and it usually runs between one thousand and twelve hundred pages – I go back to page one and start a rewrite. Not a polish – a complete rewrite. I will often throw away a hundred pages at a time, get rid of a half dozen characters and add new ones. Along the way, I constantly refine and tighten. When I get to the end of the book again, I go back to page one. I repeat this process as many as a dozen times, spending anywhere from a year to a year and a half rewriting and finally polishing, until the manuscript is as good as I know how to make it.’ Sidney Sheldon.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
In Search of Doc Holliday
Researching a Legend:
Part One
Chasing Hurricanes had its moments but the last two segments of my TV Series; “Georgia’s Heritage” took anxiety and fear to a whole new level. I was given 3 days to research, write and narrate, on camera, a film documentary of the Okefenokee Swamp. With the help of an inventive and hard working crew we managed to finish the film and beat the deadline. Then we were off to Valdosta, Georgia where I had my first brush with the legendary Doc Holliday.
We filmed the Holliday episode in Valdosta at the old house John Henry lived in during some of his teen-age years.
Both the character and the era interested me, but the story line was too short to make much of an impression. I finished my work on that segment and we wrapped the ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ series.
The Holliday story wasn’t a burning issue with me, but it never went away either. However, a few months after returning to Hollywood I did some preliminary work on the subject by reading everything I could get my hands on about the character and the era. Then I followed that up by going to the Central Library in Los Angeles. I spent hours researching and making notes from reference books that I couldn’t check out. Among them were Legends of the West, George Parson’s Journal and Eddie Foy’s biography, “Clowning Through Life.”
By that time the Holliday story definitely had my attention, and it wasn’t so much what was there that intrigued me, as what was missing. In every book I read Doc’s character was coming off just as the early Dime Store Novels had depicted him – that of a coughing, gun-crazed alcoholic.
Missing was the human factor, his family life, did he have brothers and sisters? What about his early education and where did he go to dental college? He was a dentist, but where did he practice? There were hints of a romantic tie with his cousin Mattie Holliday but no substance. And those were just a few questions I wanted to find answers to. In my mind you could not make a true three-dimensional character out of the stuff I’d read. But I’ll bet there are answers to those questions and I planned to go out and find them.
It was common knowledge that Doc Holliday suffered from tuberculosis. But none of the books or movies I was familiar with dealt with the disease in any way other than a superficial portrayal, that of a consumptive riddled ‘lunger.’
That line of thought sent me back to the library to root around the stacks looking for books on tuberculosis. Within a week or two I had read sections of and made notes from a dozen books on the subject.
The studies go back to 1020 when a pulmonary disorder was identified as a disease. But it wasn’t until 1839 when the disease was actually named Tuberculosis. And through all those years there was no consensus on any kind of a cure. During the late 1830’s someone had the idea to bring a number of tubercular patients into Mammoth Cave, with the hope that a constant temperature and purity of the cave air they might find a cure; the patients died within a year.
But in some perverted way that failed experiment might have pointed, not to a cure, but to a better way to care for tubercular patients – not cave air, but dry fresh air.
So that was about where the medical community stood during Doc Holliday’s lifetime, they had some of the answers, but not enough to lead them to an actual cure.
At that point in my research I figured I’d get more answers on site than following up on footnotes written by people using only one or two sources to arrive at their conclusions.
My basic plan was to drive to Tombstone study the geography of the place and listen to the locals. Then travel to Griffin, Georgia where Doc was born and spent his early years. Atlanta would be next, then Philadelphia. Susan McKey Thomas, the historian on the Holliday segment of ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ was almost sure that Doc attended ‘The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery’ in Philadelphia and believed that records at the University of Pennsylvania library would prove that point.
My return trip to the west was tentative, but I expected to make stops in Dallas, Central Texas and then swing by Tombstone again and ask more questions.
Next week we travel to Tombstone.
To be continued)
The Goring Collection.
Prologue:
Part One
Berlin, Germany 1941
Jacob was six years old and his sister Natalie a year younger, when they stood on the windswept platform at Berlin Station and waved enthusiastically while their parents boarded the train. Jonathan and Anna Meyers had told the children they were off on a business trip to Switzerland, and they would meet them later in Rostock. The trip was precipitated when Jonathan’s friend, Fritz Heimann, while working at the Reich Chancellery saw the names Jonathan and Anna Meyers on a list stamped JEWS for DEPORTATION.
However, the news was not all bad as he noticed that, for some unknown reason, Jacob and Natalie were not named in the document and in that instant he saw a way to save the children. Fritz Heimann urged his friend to leave them in his care, explaining that he would take them to his family home in Rostock.
Jonathan Meyers was reluctant at first but eventually recognized the gravity of the situation, consulted with his wife Anna and they agreed to go along with Heimann’s plan. Jonathan sold off some of his merchandise, which included one of the finest collections of rare books, old coins and paintings in Berlin. Then he packaged his cherished Pissarro painting, The Cliff’s of Normandy, and shipped it off to Rostock.
Once the elder Meyers’ train rolled out of Berlin Station Fritz Heimann leaned on his cane and gestured. "Come along children, we must hurry, our train leaves soon."
Jacob and Natalie skipped along the platform as they made their way to the other track, and boarded the Rostock Express that would take them north to the city by the sea. During that trip north the children’s questions never ceased. When will Mama and Papa come? Where will we live? Who will we be staying with? Fritz Heimann explained that they would be living at his family home and then in a very serious tone, he admonished, “For now you must address me as your father. Do you understand?”
It was obvious, from the looks on their innocent faces that the children did not understand. However, a few moments later a mischievous grin spread over Jacob’s face as he decided to play the game. “Yes, Papa.”
Writers Notebook:
Advice you can take to the bank.
‘To master a skill or solve a problem, you must practice the skill, study and stay with your problem.’
And while you’re at it, consider the words of these three masters, all working in their own way pointing out a great work ethic.
‘If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.’
Michelangelo
‘Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.’
Thomas Edison
‘It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.’
Albert Einstein
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Part One
Chasing Hurricanes had its moments but the last two segments of my TV Series; “Georgia’s Heritage” took anxiety and fear to a whole new level. I was given 3 days to research, write and narrate, on camera, a film documentary of the Okefenokee Swamp. With the help of an inventive and hard working crew we managed to finish the film and beat the deadline. Then we were off to Valdosta, Georgia where I had my first brush with the legendary Doc Holliday.
We filmed the Holliday episode in Valdosta at the old house John Henry lived in during some of his teen-age years.
Both the character and the era interested me, but the story line was too short to make much of an impression. I finished my work on that segment and we wrapped the ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ series.
The Holliday story wasn’t a burning issue with me, but it never went away either. However, a few months after returning to Hollywood I did some preliminary work on the subject by reading everything I could get my hands on about the character and the era. Then I followed that up by going to the Central Library in Los Angeles. I spent hours researching and making notes from reference books that I couldn’t check out. Among them were Legends of the West, George Parson’s Journal and Eddie Foy’s biography, “Clowning Through Life.”
By that time the Holliday story definitely had my attention, and it wasn’t so much what was there that intrigued me, as what was missing. In every book I read Doc’s character was coming off just as the early Dime Store Novels had depicted him – that of a coughing, gun-crazed alcoholic.
Missing was the human factor, his family life, did he have brothers and sisters? What about his early education and where did he go to dental college? He was a dentist, but where did he practice? There were hints of a romantic tie with his cousin Mattie Holliday but no substance. And those were just a few questions I wanted to find answers to. In my mind you could not make a true three-dimensional character out of the stuff I’d read. But I’ll bet there are answers to those questions and I planned to go out and find them.
It was common knowledge that Doc Holliday suffered from tuberculosis. But none of the books or movies I was familiar with dealt with the disease in any way other than a superficial portrayal, that of a consumptive riddled ‘lunger.’
That line of thought sent me back to the library to root around the stacks looking for books on tuberculosis. Within a week or two I had read sections of and made notes from a dozen books on the subject.
The studies go back to 1020 when a pulmonary disorder was identified as a disease. But it wasn’t until 1839 when the disease was actually named Tuberculosis. And through all those years there was no consensus on any kind of a cure. During the late 1830’s someone had the idea to bring a number of tubercular patients into Mammoth Cave, with the hope that a constant temperature and purity of the cave air they might find a cure; the patients died within a year.
But in some perverted way that failed experiment might have pointed, not to a cure, but to a better way to care for tubercular patients – not cave air, but dry fresh air.
So that was about where the medical community stood during Doc Holliday’s lifetime, they had some of the answers, but not enough to lead them to an actual cure.
At that point in my research I figured I’d get more answers on site than following up on footnotes written by people using only one or two sources to arrive at their conclusions.
My basic plan was to drive to Tombstone study the geography of the place and listen to the locals. Then travel to Griffin, Georgia where Doc was born and spent his early years. Atlanta would be next, then Philadelphia. Susan McKey Thomas, the historian on the Holliday segment of ‘Georgia’s Heritage’ was almost sure that Doc attended ‘The Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery’ in Philadelphia and believed that records at the University of Pennsylvania library would prove that point.
My return trip to the west was tentative, but I expected to make stops in Dallas, Central Texas and then swing by Tombstone again and ask more questions.
Next week we travel to Tombstone.
To be continued)
The Goring Collection.
Prologue:
Part One
Berlin, Germany 1941
Jacob was six years old and his sister Natalie a year younger, when they stood on the windswept platform at Berlin Station and waved enthusiastically while their parents boarded the train. Jonathan and Anna Meyers had told the children they were off on a business trip to Switzerland, and they would meet them later in Rostock. The trip was precipitated when Jonathan’s friend, Fritz Heimann, while working at the Reich Chancellery saw the names Jonathan and Anna Meyers on a list stamped JEWS for DEPORTATION.
However, the news was not all bad as he noticed that, for some unknown reason, Jacob and Natalie were not named in the document and in that instant he saw a way to save the children. Fritz Heimann urged his friend to leave them in his care, explaining that he would take them to his family home in Rostock.
Jonathan Meyers was reluctant at first but eventually recognized the gravity of the situation, consulted with his wife Anna and they agreed to go along with Heimann’s plan. Jonathan sold off some of his merchandise, which included one of the finest collections of rare books, old coins and paintings in Berlin. Then he packaged his cherished Pissarro painting, The Cliff’s of Normandy, and shipped it off to Rostock.
Once the elder Meyers’ train rolled out of Berlin Station Fritz Heimann leaned on his cane and gestured. "Come along children, we must hurry, our train leaves soon."
Jacob and Natalie skipped along the platform as they made their way to the other track, and boarded the Rostock Express that would take them north to the city by the sea. During that trip north the children’s questions never ceased. When will Mama and Papa come? Where will we live? Who will we be staying with? Fritz Heimann explained that they would be living at his family home and then in a very serious tone, he admonished, “For now you must address me as your father. Do you understand?”
It was obvious, from the looks on their innocent faces that the children did not understand. However, a few moments later a mischievous grin spread over Jacob’s face as he decided to play the game. “Yes, Papa.”
Writers Notebook:
Advice you can take to the bank.
‘To master a skill or solve a problem, you must practice the skill, study and stay with your problem.’
And while you’re at it, consider the words of these three masters, all working in their own way pointing out a great work ethic.
‘If people knew how hard I have had to work to gain my mastery, it wouldn’t seem wonderful at all.’
Michelangelo
‘Our greatest weakness lies in giving up. The most certain way to succeed is to always try one more time.’
Thomas Edison
‘It’s not that I’m so smart, it’s just that I stay with problems longer.’
Albert Einstein
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
2009 Belmont Summer Bird, Dunkirk and Mine that Bird
Birdstone’s success and Desormeaux’s redemption:
Sons of Birdstone: Summer Bird and Mine that Bird finished first and third in Saturday’s Belmont.
The youngsters were true to their breeding showing tenacity and stamina passed along to them by Papa Birdstone. While the Belmont didn’t produce a Triple Crown this year it might have done just as much for racing by highlighting an overlooked stud. Of course now that the secrets out Birdstone will be getting more respect and I predict his stud fees will be going up by a sizeable figure.
The most honest part of horse racing is the horse. Owners, trainers and jockeys are all guided by a human factor, ego followed close on by ignorance.
Last year it was Big Brown’s trainer making outrageous remarks about how great his charge was. This year Mine that Bird’s jockey Calvin Borel was the culprit.
An odd thing happened on the way to the finish line – redemption for Kent Desormeaux.
A couple of Cajuns Desormeaux and Borel riding competing horses from the same sire, Desormeaux came both mentally and physically prepared to win the Belmont, Borel didn’t. While Borel was enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame on TV’s Late Shows and seeing New York Desormeaux was studying his past performance record at Belmont, including a couple of losing efforts in the Belmont stakes. He was also working to secure mounts for the day of the Belmont and wound up with three wins on the early card prior to the big race. That race day experience of riding solid mounts over Big Sandy gave Desormeaux an edge.
Now we are aware that the Kentucky Derby winner Mine that Bird has a very talented half brother Summer Bird.
But don’t forget Dunkirk, the horse with the speed that carried the race and came in second.
What Desormeaux knew from past experience over the giant Belmont oval could only be learned by multiple races over the track. Big Sandy as the Belmont track is called is as different from Churchill Downs as the Indianapolis brickyard is to Talladega, Alabama in auto racing.
Kent Desormeaux and Summer Bird had something else going for them, Nick Zito the winning New York trainer. Summer Bird and his trainer Tim Ice were welcomed into and housed in Zito’s barn for their stay in New York.
Zito has spoiled the chances of several Triple Crown threats with wins in the Belmont, which includes Birdstone’s win over Smarty Jones in 2004.
Of the first three horses to cross the finish line Dunkirk was the only one to sustain an injury, a fracture in his left hind cannon bone. Fortunately it’s not life threatening, but it will keep him out of racing for a while.
Belmont winner Summer Bird returns to his Louisiana Downs home base for some rest. Then according his trainer Tim Ice he’ll begin to train for the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell at Monmouth Park on August 2nd. The next goal will be the Grade 1, $1 million Travers at Saratoga on August 29th.
Mine that Bird’s trainer Chip Woolley said his horse came out of the race in great condition and was set for an eight-week rest.
In the meantime the owners and Woolley are aiming for the Breeders Cup Classic at Santa Anita on November 7th. To prepare for that race they want to keep him on the dirt and run him against three year olds.
The horse seems to have gotten through the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont better than his trainer. Woolley admitted that hobbling through the grind of a Triple Crown campaign on crutches and a broken leg finally took its tole on him.
‘Talk about whipped, about half way through dinner last night I just said guys I’m done. And I’m not that type at all. I couldn’t believe how I hit the wall last night. I never thought I’d be sitting here sort of down about running third in the Belmont. This has been a lifetime dream.’
Coming Attractions:
‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone’
‘Doc Holliday’s gambling skills, six-gun and caustic wit created a western legend. But Sister Mary Melanie, Margaret Mitchell and ‘Gone With the Wind’ tell the rest of the story and give us the real Doc Holliday.’
‘The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle’
Washington orders military to develop hurricane-warning system. Navy vets back from Pacific War form Squadron 114 and flying out of Masters Field, Miami, Florida chased and charted eleven tropical storms and hurricanes the season of 1945, which started the process and development of our present Hurricane Warning System.
For updates go to www.TomsHurricanes.com
Writers Notebook:
A How to Book that Works:
My Review
Dan Poynter’s Self Publishing Manual is what the title implies – and a whole lot more. The book is also a marketing guide and goes a long way in the public relations area.
During the course of reading the book I jotted down a dozen or more subject notes and I’ll share some of them with you.
Poynter talks about reviews, testimonials and how your web site is at the heart of your promotional campaign. The section on news releases gives you an example of their format and how to tailor the release to your material.
The chapter titled “Advertising Your Book,” not only gives mail and print information you are told how to obtain radio interviews, which gives you free airtime to promote your book.
Those are just a few of the great ideas. Anyone with a book in the works or one that’s ready for the market will benefit from this manual.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Sons of Birdstone: Summer Bird and Mine that Bird finished first and third in Saturday’s Belmont.
The youngsters were true to their breeding showing tenacity and stamina passed along to them by Papa Birdstone. While the Belmont didn’t produce a Triple Crown this year it might have done just as much for racing by highlighting an overlooked stud. Of course now that the secrets out Birdstone will be getting more respect and I predict his stud fees will be going up by a sizeable figure.
The most honest part of horse racing is the horse. Owners, trainers and jockeys are all guided by a human factor, ego followed close on by ignorance.
Last year it was Big Brown’s trainer making outrageous remarks about how great his charge was. This year Mine that Bird’s jockey Calvin Borel was the culprit.
An odd thing happened on the way to the finish line – redemption for Kent Desormeaux.
A couple of Cajuns Desormeaux and Borel riding competing horses from the same sire, Desormeaux came both mentally and physically prepared to win the Belmont, Borel didn’t. While Borel was enjoying his fifteen minutes of fame on TV’s Late Shows and seeing New York Desormeaux was studying his past performance record at Belmont, including a couple of losing efforts in the Belmont stakes. He was also working to secure mounts for the day of the Belmont and wound up with three wins on the early card prior to the big race. That race day experience of riding solid mounts over Big Sandy gave Desormeaux an edge.
Now we are aware that the Kentucky Derby winner Mine that Bird has a very talented half brother Summer Bird.
But don’t forget Dunkirk, the horse with the speed that carried the race and came in second.
What Desormeaux knew from past experience over the giant Belmont oval could only be learned by multiple races over the track. Big Sandy as the Belmont track is called is as different from Churchill Downs as the Indianapolis brickyard is to Talladega, Alabama in auto racing.
Kent Desormeaux and Summer Bird had something else going for them, Nick Zito the winning New York trainer. Summer Bird and his trainer Tim Ice were welcomed into and housed in Zito’s barn for their stay in New York.
Zito has spoiled the chances of several Triple Crown threats with wins in the Belmont, which includes Birdstone’s win over Smarty Jones in 2004.
Of the first three horses to cross the finish line Dunkirk was the only one to sustain an injury, a fracture in his left hind cannon bone. Fortunately it’s not life threatening, but it will keep him out of racing for a while.
Belmont winner Summer Bird returns to his Louisiana Downs home base for some rest. Then according his trainer Tim Ice he’ll begin to train for the Grade 1, $1 million Haskell at Monmouth Park on August 2nd. The next goal will be the Grade 1, $1 million Travers at Saratoga on August 29th.
Mine that Bird’s trainer Chip Woolley said his horse came out of the race in great condition and was set for an eight-week rest.
In the meantime the owners and Woolley are aiming for the Breeders Cup Classic at Santa Anita on November 7th. To prepare for that race they want to keep him on the dirt and run him against three year olds.
The horse seems to have gotten through the Kentucky Derby, Preakness and Belmont better than his trainer. Woolley admitted that hobbling through the grind of a Triple Crown campaign on crutches and a broken leg finally took its tole on him.
‘Talk about whipped, about half way through dinner last night I just said guys I’m done. And I’m not that type at all. I couldn’t believe how I hit the wall last night. I never thought I’d be sitting here sort of down about running third in the Belmont. This has been a lifetime dream.’
Coming Attractions:
‘Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone’
‘Doc Holliday’s gambling skills, six-gun and caustic wit created a western legend. But Sister Mary Melanie, Margaret Mitchell and ‘Gone With the Wind’ tell the rest of the story and give us the real Doc Holliday.’
‘The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle’
Washington orders military to develop hurricane-warning system. Navy vets back from Pacific War form Squadron 114 and flying out of Masters Field, Miami, Florida chased and charted eleven tropical storms and hurricanes the season of 1945, which started the process and development of our present Hurricane Warning System.
For updates go to www.TomsHurricanes.com
Writers Notebook:
A How to Book that Works:
My Review
Dan Poynter’s Self Publishing Manual is what the title implies – and a whole lot more. The book is also a marketing guide and goes a long way in the public relations area.
During the course of reading the book I jotted down a dozen or more subject notes and I’ll share some of them with you.
Poynter talks about reviews, testimonials and how your web site is at the heart of your promotional campaign. The section on news releases gives you an example of their format and how to tailor the release to your material.
The chapter titled “Advertising Your Book,” not only gives mail and print information you are told how to obtain radio interviews, which gives you free airtime to promote your book.
Those are just a few of the great ideas. Anyone with a book in the works or one that’s ready for the market will benefit from this manual.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.TomsHurricanes.com
Wednesday, June 3, 2009
Mine that Bird and the Legendary Seabiscuit
Mine that Bird and the Belmont
It was announced over the weekend that Rachel Alexandra will not run in the Belmont Stakes this Saturday and thus will deny the match up most people had hoped for. Not to worry though, there will be a race on Saturday and Mine that Bird winner of the Kentucky Derby and second in the Preakness will be out to make a statement.
However, we’ll first have to get past the flap his jockey Borel caused with an over confident remark, ‘We’re going to win it, no questions asked,’ has piqued the pride of some horsemen and I suspect tactics born out of that irritation will show up on the racetrack Saturday afternoon.
That remark notwithstanding Borel has only ridden in seven races over the Belmont course winning just once.
Clair Novak interviewed Borel and they talked about his statement and some of the remarks regarding tactics to deny him a win. In her remarks after the interview she concluded that …’a confident reinsman is saying "bring it on."
"They're going to do their best, yes, you're supposed to, that's what it's about, but I don't have to be (on the rail)," he said.
And, at the end of the day — win, lose, or draw — all riders will just be doing their jobs.
"It's a horse race," Borel said. "I've been there, done that. And they've gotta ride their horse. But they're not going to stop me from wining."
The story of Mine that Bird reminds me of another small sized horse from an earlier generation. Seabiscuit was his name and he didn’t win all of his races either, but he won the hearts of Americans.
My review
Seabiscuit: The Little Horse With a Big Heart.In her story of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand has opened a unique window into the world of horse racing. The main characters are a quiet horse trainer named Tom Smith, the flamboyant horse owner Charles Howard, a horse named Seabiscuit and jockey’s Red Pollard and George Wolfe.
The owner and trainer first hooked up at the Aqua Caliente Race Track in Mexico. Smith and Howard were as opposite as night and day, but they made accommodations for each other’s differences and their relationship flourished. Once Smith worked the stable’s horses into racing condition they moved the operation north to Santa Anita and into Barn #38.
Their first season together was successful and near the end of the Santa Anita season Howard decided to move his stable to a small track in Michigan called the Detroit Fairgrounds. Smith was sent farther east to look for some mature horses to augment their juvenile stable. On June 29th at Boston’s Suffolk Downs a horse stopped in front of Tom Smith and for a long moment the two eyed one another. Fate? The horse continued in the post parade, but Seabiscuit had gotten Smith’s attention. It wasn’t his build, he had a rectangular body with short legs, but Smith looked at the program and saw that the horse was a descendent of the great Man O’ War and was sired by Hard Tack. Seabiscuit reflected none of the beauty and breadth of his forebears, but carried all the nasty, mean and unruly traits of the others.
Tom Smith wanted that horse and Charles Howard made arrangements. Seabiscuit was taken to the Howard barn, but the former owners had worn the horse out. Seabiscuit was exhausted from a hard racing campaign. The horse was only three years old and had already run as many races as most horses would accumulate in a full career. What Tom Smith wanted was time to rest the horse, and give himself a chance to figure out the horses problems and how best to deal with them. Seabiscuit had been abused by a number of jockey’s and it would take some time to turn the horse’s attitude around.
In November of 1936 Howard’s stable of horses were in the San Francisco Bay area of California, the idea was to enter Seabiscuit in the Santa Anita handicap on February 27th of the next year.
Tom Smith had finally found a way to settle the horse down and got Seabiscuit interested in what he was born to do – run. They ran him in two prep races at Bay Meadows and won them both. Red Pollard was aboard in both wins. Then it was on to Southern California for two more prep races prior to the Santa Anita Handicap.
The big cap was run before 60, 000 raucous and cheering race fans. Pollard rode a perfect race weaving his way through the field and got the lead in the stretch – but the jockey let the horse relax around the eighth pole. No one knows for sure, but chances are due to Pollard’s right blind eye he probably didn’t see Rosemont flying down the middle of the track. Seabiscuit was overtaken and couldn’t regain the momentum to win. He lost in a photo finish but won the hearts of Americans all over the depression-plagued land. There was something about that little horse that gave hope to millions who had little more than hope to cling to during those hard times.
Hillenbrand has fashioned a great horse story and readers will come away with knowledge that they could have only learned from a legend.
Writers Notebook:
Another marketing source for writers is Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s ‘The Frugal Book Promoter.’
My review.
After wading through half a dozen cut and paste marketing books, I found it refreshing to read Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s down to earth approach to book promotion. The Frugal Book Promoter is the real deal, easy to read and easy to apply.
In her PR Primer she says, “Don’t publicize your book; instead “brand” yourself.”
In other words don’t be a one-pony show, after all you might write another book or invent something you’d like to promote.
Frugal is filled with easy to understand marketing tips along with how to use postcards, get book reviews and Media interviews. There’s also a chapter on E-Books.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
It was announced over the weekend that Rachel Alexandra will not run in the Belmont Stakes this Saturday and thus will deny the match up most people had hoped for. Not to worry though, there will be a race on Saturday and Mine that Bird winner of the Kentucky Derby and second in the Preakness will be out to make a statement.
However, we’ll first have to get past the flap his jockey Borel caused with an over confident remark, ‘We’re going to win it, no questions asked,’ has piqued the pride of some horsemen and I suspect tactics born out of that irritation will show up on the racetrack Saturday afternoon.
That remark notwithstanding Borel has only ridden in seven races over the Belmont course winning just once.
Clair Novak interviewed Borel and they talked about his statement and some of the remarks regarding tactics to deny him a win. In her remarks after the interview she concluded that …’a confident reinsman is saying "bring it on."
"They're going to do their best, yes, you're supposed to, that's what it's about, but I don't have to be (on the rail)," he said.
And, at the end of the day — win, lose, or draw — all riders will just be doing their jobs.
"It's a horse race," Borel said. "I've been there, done that. And they've gotta ride their horse. But they're not going to stop me from wining."
The story of Mine that Bird reminds me of another small sized horse from an earlier generation. Seabiscuit was his name and he didn’t win all of his races either, but he won the hearts of Americans.
My review
Seabiscuit: The Little Horse With a Big Heart.In her story of Seabiscuit, Laura Hillenbrand has opened a unique window into the world of horse racing. The main characters are a quiet horse trainer named Tom Smith, the flamboyant horse owner Charles Howard, a horse named Seabiscuit and jockey’s Red Pollard and George Wolfe.
The owner and trainer first hooked up at the Aqua Caliente Race Track in Mexico. Smith and Howard were as opposite as night and day, but they made accommodations for each other’s differences and their relationship flourished. Once Smith worked the stable’s horses into racing condition they moved the operation north to Santa Anita and into Barn #38.
Their first season together was successful and near the end of the Santa Anita season Howard decided to move his stable to a small track in Michigan called the Detroit Fairgrounds. Smith was sent farther east to look for some mature horses to augment their juvenile stable. On June 29th at Boston’s Suffolk Downs a horse stopped in front of Tom Smith and for a long moment the two eyed one another. Fate? The horse continued in the post parade, but Seabiscuit had gotten Smith’s attention. It wasn’t his build, he had a rectangular body with short legs, but Smith looked at the program and saw that the horse was a descendent of the great Man O’ War and was sired by Hard Tack. Seabiscuit reflected none of the beauty and breadth of his forebears, but carried all the nasty, mean and unruly traits of the others.
Tom Smith wanted that horse and Charles Howard made arrangements. Seabiscuit was taken to the Howard barn, but the former owners had worn the horse out. Seabiscuit was exhausted from a hard racing campaign. The horse was only three years old and had already run as many races as most horses would accumulate in a full career. What Tom Smith wanted was time to rest the horse, and give himself a chance to figure out the horses problems and how best to deal with them. Seabiscuit had been abused by a number of jockey’s and it would take some time to turn the horse’s attitude around.
In November of 1936 Howard’s stable of horses were in the San Francisco Bay area of California, the idea was to enter Seabiscuit in the Santa Anita handicap on February 27th of the next year.
Tom Smith had finally found a way to settle the horse down and got Seabiscuit interested in what he was born to do – run. They ran him in two prep races at Bay Meadows and won them both. Red Pollard was aboard in both wins. Then it was on to Southern California for two more prep races prior to the Santa Anita Handicap.
The big cap was run before 60, 000 raucous and cheering race fans. Pollard rode a perfect race weaving his way through the field and got the lead in the stretch – but the jockey let the horse relax around the eighth pole. No one knows for sure, but chances are due to Pollard’s right blind eye he probably didn’t see Rosemont flying down the middle of the track. Seabiscuit was overtaken and couldn’t regain the momentum to win. He lost in a photo finish but won the hearts of Americans all over the depression-plagued land. There was something about that little horse that gave hope to millions who had little more than hope to cling to during those hard times.
Hillenbrand has fashioned a great horse story and readers will come away with knowledge that they could have only learned from a legend.
Writers Notebook:
Another marketing source for writers is Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s ‘The Frugal Book Promoter.’
My review.
After wading through half a dozen cut and paste marketing books, I found it refreshing to read Carolyn Howard-Johnson’s down to earth approach to book promotion. The Frugal Book Promoter is the real deal, easy to read and easy to apply.
In her PR Primer she says, “Don’t publicize your book; instead “brand” yourself.”
In other words don’t be a one-pony show, after all you might write another book or invent something you’d like to promote.
Frugal is filled with easy to understand marketing tips along with how to use postcards, get book reviews and Media interviews. There’s also a chapter on E-Books.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
Wednesday, May 27, 2009
Doc Holliday, Val Kilmer and Amazon Reviews
Inside Doc Holliday’s World
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone: Tuberculosis, the road west and Sister Melanie.
False accusations and outright lies aimed to darken the Holliday legend was not lost on journalist, Lucy Caldwell and producer, Bobby Anderson. They were convinced that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated. Lucy and Bobby worked independently, searching for the real Doc Holliday, but success comes only after they join forces and fully explore the love story involving John Henry and his cousin, Mattie Holliday.
The storybook romance between John Henry and Mattie is cut short by disease and family strife. The young dentist is forced by circumstance and failing health to abandon Mattie for a life in the West where he encounters the likes of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Eddie Foy and Kate Elder. Doc Holliday, using his gambling skills and a caustic wit, plays out the bad hand life had dealt him.
In a card game at Ft. Griffin, when forced to defend himself, Doc killed a card cheater. The cheaters pals want retribution, but Kate plans and executes a daring escape from the hostile mob. Doc owes his life to Kate and even as they forge a salty and tumultuous relationship, he would never forget what she did for him at Ft. Griffin.
Doc’s courage and loyalty are tested when he rushes in to save Wyatt Earp from a bunch of drunken cowboys, and a hangman’s noose, at Dodge City.
Three years later Doc once again shows his true character when he stands with the Earp’s in the shootout, at the Ok Corral. Doc survives the gunfight, but death from tuberculosis is never far away.
Mattie, desperate in her loneliness, writes Doc that she has fully embraced her Catholic religion…
Doc opened the envelope, half standing and half sitting beside the steps to the porch.
My Dear John Henry,
I am sure that you will feel no more shock than I at the prospect of my becoming a nun and I expect that I will be the oldest novice in the country. Be that as it may, I have a new beginning, a new life. My work for the Lord will not keep my love from you. It will, however, be a love from my heart only. My feeling and caring for your well being will remain the same. Our past will always shine bright in my memories, dear cousin.
I am well aware that you do not carry the same religious fervor that I have inherited from Mother. I know that you are good John Henry and perhaps one day you will come to see the Lord as I do. In the meantime, I shall pray for you every day and be with you in spirit. God bless you, John Henry.
Doc held the letter at arms length and looked at the signature. He shook his head in disbelief and lamented, "Melanie ... Sister Mary Melanie?" then he sobbed plaintively, "My God, Mattie. What have I done?"
Tombstone and Val Kilmer:
Why has Val Kilmer won more accolades than any other actor, to date, playing the role of Doc Holliday? I can’t speak for Kilmer, but his on screen performance in Tombstone went far beyond the old dime store novel caricature, used by most of his predecessors. Kilmer found and used Doc’s natural wit and humor, and that’s an echo from the past. When someone asked why he palled around with Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp said, ‘He makes me laugh.’
The jockey flap and the Belmont:
We’ve got Jess Jackson and Chip Woolly, a couple of old horse traders, at the poker table with both drawing to an inside flush.
Woolly wants Borel to ride Mine that Bird in the mile and one half Belmont. I don’t think Borel is the best choice, but that’s just my opinion.
Jackson’s not sure Rachel Alexandra can go a mile and one half and I think a lot of folks are in that camp.
Maybe we’ll have an answer soon, will she or won’t she, and a jockey to be named next Monday. But no matter what happens, since the Triple Crown is not to be this year the jockey story and the reluctant debutant have held the racing world’s attention during this wait for that long mile and one half race on June 6th called the Belmont Stakes.
Writers Notebook:
Sell your book on Amazon
Review
‘Brent Sampson has given us a pretty good primer on some of the Amazon programs available to authors selling their books on Amazon. I say some because Amazon is innovative and in a constant state of change. They add programs, change, update and even cancel one now and then. But Sampson’s ‘Sell your book on Amazon’ has captured a moment in time and gives you a good overview of the basic programs.
You begin on the Profile page and work from there to Amazon Connect, Listmania, So you’d like to…, the book detail page and several other programs you might find interesting.
If you are a non-technical person, like me, Sampson’s book will walk you through the programs with ease. Keep this in mind though, ‘Sell Your Book on Amazon’ won’t answer all your marketing questions, but it will save you a lot of time as you work your way through the Amazon system.’
Here are several notes about reviews and how they can benefit the writer.
Writing customer reviews on Amazon are a valuable asset to the writer. They also get the added bonus of a gold-star near the title. As soon as your book is listed on Amazon look around for a good review, a five star review if possible.
One way to get those customer reviews is to give away review copies to persons you consider capable of writing a good review and ask those reviewers to post their reviews on Amazon. And don’t forget to mention that five stars would be very helpful.
You can also trade reviews – you review my book and I’ll review yours.
But be prepared to take your lumps. Just remember that when you’re out in the marketplace everyone has an opinion and they are all biased one way or another. Some people never have a nice thing to say about anybody or anything in their book reviews.
I have one reviewer that has taken a particular dislike to one of my books and continues to give it a one star rating along with several very unflattering remarks. (I know the reason for the bias.) Amazon has been kind enough to take it down a couple of times, but it’s like one of those annoying pop up ads that keep coming back.
I’ve decided to leave it there and consider it a badge of honor – at least he’s paying attention. I took a look around and discovered I’m not alone in the one star division; I have some pretty good company. John Grisham’s ‘The Firm,’ Sidney Sheldon’s ‘Master of the Game’ and Dick Francis got in the club with ‘Win, Place and Show.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone: Tuberculosis, the road west and Sister Melanie.
False accusations and outright lies aimed to darken the Holliday legend was not lost on journalist, Lucy Caldwell and producer, Bobby Anderson. They were convinced that the true Holliday legend was hidden beneath a veneer that Dime Store novels had drawn and Hollywood perpetuated. Lucy and Bobby worked independently, searching for the real Doc Holliday, but success comes only after they join forces and fully explore the love story involving John Henry and his cousin, Mattie Holliday.
The storybook romance between John Henry and Mattie is cut short by disease and family strife. The young dentist is forced by circumstance and failing health to abandon Mattie for a life in the West where he encounters the likes of Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, Eddie Foy and Kate Elder. Doc Holliday, using his gambling skills and a caustic wit, plays out the bad hand life had dealt him.
In a card game at Ft. Griffin, when forced to defend himself, Doc killed a card cheater. The cheaters pals want retribution, but Kate plans and executes a daring escape from the hostile mob. Doc owes his life to Kate and even as they forge a salty and tumultuous relationship, he would never forget what she did for him at Ft. Griffin.
Doc’s courage and loyalty are tested when he rushes in to save Wyatt Earp from a bunch of drunken cowboys, and a hangman’s noose, at Dodge City.
Three years later Doc once again shows his true character when he stands with the Earp’s in the shootout, at the Ok Corral. Doc survives the gunfight, but death from tuberculosis is never far away.
Mattie, desperate in her loneliness, writes Doc that she has fully embraced her Catholic religion…
Doc opened the envelope, half standing and half sitting beside the steps to the porch.
My Dear John Henry,
I am sure that you will feel no more shock than I at the prospect of my becoming a nun and I expect that I will be the oldest novice in the country. Be that as it may, I have a new beginning, a new life. My work for the Lord will not keep my love from you. It will, however, be a love from my heart only. My feeling and caring for your well being will remain the same. Our past will always shine bright in my memories, dear cousin.
I am well aware that you do not carry the same religious fervor that I have inherited from Mother. I know that you are good John Henry and perhaps one day you will come to see the Lord as I do. In the meantime, I shall pray for you every day and be with you in spirit. God bless you, John Henry.
Doc held the letter at arms length and looked at the signature. He shook his head in disbelief and lamented, "Melanie ... Sister Mary Melanie?" then he sobbed plaintively, "My God, Mattie. What have I done?"
Tombstone and Val Kilmer:
Why has Val Kilmer won more accolades than any other actor, to date, playing the role of Doc Holliday? I can’t speak for Kilmer, but his on screen performance in Tombstone went far beyond the old dime store novel caricature, used by most of his predecessors. Kilmer found and used Doc’s natural wit and humor, and that’s an echo from the past. When someone asked why he palled around with Doc Holliday, Wyatt Earp said, ‘He makes me laugh.’
The jockey flap and the Belmont:
We’ve got Jess Jackson and Chip Woolly, a couple of old horse traders, at the poker table with both drawing to an inside flush.
Woolly wants Borel to ride Mine that Bird in the mile and one half Belmont. I don’t think Borel is the best choice, but that’s just my opinion.
Jackson’s not sure Rachel Alexandra can go a mile and one half and I think a lot of folks are in that camp.
Maybe we’ll have an answer soon, will she or won’t she, and a jockey to be named next Monday. But no matter what happens, since the Triple Crown is not to be this year the jockey story and the reluctant debutant have held the racing world’s attention during this wait for that long mile and one half race on June 6th called the Belmont Stakes.
Writers Notebook:
Sell your book on Amazon
Review
‘Brent Sampson has given us a pretty good primer on some of the Amazon programs available to authors selling their books on Amazon. I say some because Amazon is innovative and in a constant state of change. They add programs, change, update and even cancel one now and then. But Sampson’s ‘Sell your book on Amazon’ has captured a moment in time and gives you a good overview of the basic programs.
You begin on the Profile page and work from there to Amazon Connect, Listmania, So you’d like to…, the book detail page and several other programs you might find interesting.
If you are a non-technical person, like me, Sampson’s book will walk you through the programs with ease. Keep this in mind though, ‘Sell Your Book on Amazon’ won’t answer all your marketing questions, but it will save you a lot of time as you work your way through the Amazon system.’
Here are several notes about reviews and how they can benefit the writer.
Writing customer reviews on Amazon are a valuable asset to the writer. They also get the added bonus of a gold-star near the title. As soon as your book is listed on Amazon look around for a good review, a five star review if possible.
One way to get those customer reviews is to give away review copies to persons you consider capable of writing a good review and ask those reviewers to post their reviews on Amazon. And don’t forget to mention that five stars would be very helpful.
You can also trade reviews – you review my book and I’ll review yours.
But be prepared to take your lumps. Just remember that when you’re out in the marketplace everyone has an opinion and they are all biased one way or another. Some people never have a nice thing to say about anybody or anything in their book reviews.
I have one reviewer that has taken a particular dislike to one of my books and continues to give it a one star rating along with several very unflattering remarks. (I know the reason for the bias.) Amazon has been kind enough to take it down a couple of times, but it’s like one of those annoying pop up ads that keep coming back.
I’ve decided to leave it there and consider it a badge of honor – at least he’s paying attention. I took a look around and discovered I’m not alone in the one star division; I have some pretty good company. John Grisham’s ‘The Firm,’ Sidney Sheldon’s ‘Master of the Game’ and Dick Francis got in the club with ‘Win, Place and Show.’
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.www.tombarnes39.com
www.RocktheTower.com
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Bob Hope Introduces Oscar to Radio
Let’s go to the Movies Part 18
Hollywood Grows Up.
Hollywood came of age during the 1930’s and movie fans lined up in droves to watch the latest film. The industry grew in every aspect of filmmaking, silents to sound, black and white to color, and a thousand other film techniques the public was not aware of.
With every passing year during that decade writers and directors were delivering a better product.
Suddenly a funny thing happened, it was like the whole Hollywood colony took aim at and built to a crescendo, saving their very best for that last and final year of the decade -- 1939. And what a film year it was. Members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science had a wonderful and at the same time the terrible task of weeding out the good from the good.
During most years any one of 1939’s top 20 or 25 films could have won an Oscar
The nominating committee did a masterful job just to pare it down some, but not much, as they finally nominated ten films for best picture. When you read the list of films in the group that were not nominated you might have a fleeting moment and think – why they must have thrown a bunch of titles into a hat and drew out the first ten. I’m sure that didn’t happen, but what a delicious dilemma.
Here are some of the films that didn’t make the cut Gunga Din – Cary Grant, The Little Princess – Shirley Temple, Intermezzo – Ingrid Bergman’s American debut, Story of Vernon and Irene Castle – Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Roaring Twenties – Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney, Drums along the Mohawk – Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Charles Laughton and Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda.
America was digging its way out of the malaise and misery of those depression years and it was Hollywood that provided an all-star celebration, marking an end to the thirties.
‘Turn on your radios America.’
On the night of February 29, 1940 there's going to be a party at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove.
Bob Hope was the MC for the evening and said, ‘Hello this is Bob, coming to you from the Ambassador Hotel, and the Academy Award Ceremony, Hope -- saying good evening all you, sitting on pins and needles, hopefuls.’
That was Oscar night and what a wonderful night it was as they passed out awards for great and talented work in front of and behind the camera.
Then came the announcement for the grand prize. ‘And here are the nominees for best picture.
Dark Victory
Good Bye, Mr. Chips
Gone With the Wind
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice And Men
Stagecoach
The Wizzard Of Oz
Wuthering Heights.
.
Now open the envelope please. ‘The best picture of 1939 is;
GONE WITH THE WIND.’
Think ahead to the Belmont Stakes.
There will be no Triple Crown in 2009, but the drama continues.
Blocked at the top of the stretch -- the lost momentum doomed the chances of a clean late run for Mine that Bird’s win. However, when he got back in stride, he gave a stretch run for the ages only to come up ¾’s of a length short to finish second.
Rachel Alexandra got the win, but her owners are unsure about the Belmont.
There’s a long tradition in horse racing that directs the horses from the saddling barn to begin the post parade. The horses are led out of the barn to a walking area where they make a brief stop and one of the racing officials gives the call, ‘Riders up,’ and the jockey is given a leg up and into the saddle.
Question now is who’s the jockey that will climb aboard Mine that Bird on June 6th for the Belmont Stakes?
Last Monday morning trainer Chip Woolly announced that his choice for the Belmont was Mike Smith who rode Mine that Bird to a second place win in the Preakness. But later in the day Smith’s agent called Woolly and explained that a prior commitment to ride Madeo in the Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park that day had to be honored.
So there you have it – for now.
Back at Churchill Downs, trainer Chip Woolly’s first priority is keeping Mine that Bird fit and ready for the Belmont. Second is the jockey situation. He said, ‘We’re going to make a decision pretty quick, so we’ll see what happens.’ Then he added, ‘Patience is probably the number one concern; is somebody patient and will they wait and see how things develop.’
And here’s my two cents for what they’re worth. I’d be looking for someone based at Belmont with patients and a jockey that knows every inch of ground on that big oval like the back of his or her hand. A jockey that knows how to win at a mile and one half on that two turn monster.
To keep up with the saga read my daily twitter reports in the sidebar of this blog or go to www.twitter.com/tombarnes39
Writers Notebook:
Writing a book is just part of the chain that eventually gets your book into the hands of the reader. Publishing and marketing are a large part of that process and to give you some ideas about marketing and sales during the next few weeks I plan to introduce you to some of those subjects by using my own reviews of the books.
Make Friends and Sell Books
John Kremer seems to live and breathe book marketing. One of his mottos is that selling is all about making friends and the more you work with 1001 Ways to Market your Book the sooner you recognize the truth in that statement. Connecting with people and networking is all about making friends.
The first time you thumb through the 700-page book you are almost overwhelmed by the daunting task ahead. Just turn a couple of pages and you’ll find the dedication. It’s only a few lines but near the bottom is a line filled with hope. John says, ‘Take your time. Do it right. And enjoy.’
Keep that in mind and do one task at a time. Then before you know it, you’ll be highlighting sections and marking page numbers for points of reference.
The book contains everything from Internet sales, websites, blogs and newsletters to bookstores and book fairs. And a whole lot more.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
Hollywood Grows Up.
Hollywood came of age during the 1930’s and movie fans lined up in droves to watch the latest film. The industry grew in every aspect of filmmaking, silents to sound, black and white to color, and a thousand other film techniques the public was not aware of.
With every passing year during that decade writers and directors were delivering a better product.
Suddenly a funny thing happened, it was like the whole Hollywood colony took aim at and built to a crescendo, saving their very best for that last and final year of the decade -- 1939. And what a film year it was. Members of the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Science had a wonderful and at the same time the terrible task of weeding out the good from the good.
During most years any one of 1939’s top 20 or 25 films could have won an Oscar
The nominating committee did a masterful job just to pare it down some, but not much, as they finally nominated ten films for best picture. When you read the list of films in the group that were not nominated you might have a fleeting moment and think – why they must have thrown a bunch of titles into a hat and drew out the first ten. I’m sure that didn’t happen, but what a delicious dilemma.
Here are some of the films that didn’t make the cut Gunga Din – Cary Grant, The Little Princess – Shirley Temple, Intermezzo – Ingrid Bergman’s American debut, Story of Vernon and Irene Castle – Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, The Roaring Twenties – Humphrey Bogart and James Cagney, Drums along the Mohawk – Claudette Colbert and Henry Fonda, The Hunchback of Notre Dame – Charles Laughton and Young Mr. Lincoln with Henry Fonda.
America was digging its way out of the malaise and misery of those depression years and it was Hollywood that provided an all-star celebration, marking an end to the thirties.
‘Turn on your radios America.’
On the night of February 29, 1940 there's going to be a party at the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove.
Bob Hope was the MC for the evening and said, ‘Hello this is Bob, coming to you from the Ambassador Hotel, and the Academy Award Ceremony, Hope -- saying good evening all you, sitting on pins and needles, hopefuls.’
That was Oscar night and what a wonderful night it was as they passed out awards for great and talented work in front of and behind the camera.
Then came the announcement for the grand prize. ‘And here are the nominees for best picture.
Dark Victory
Good Bye, Mr. Chips
Gone With the Wind
Love Affair
Mr. Smith Goes To Washington
Ninotchka
Of Mice And Men
Stagecoach
The Wizzard Of Oz
Wuthering Heights.
.
Now open the envelope please. ‘The best picture of 1939 is;
GONE WITH THE WIND.’
Think ahead to the Belmont Stakes.
There will be no Triple Crown in 2009, but the drama continues.
Blocked at the top of the stretch -- the lost momentum doomed the chances of a clean late run for Mine that Bird’s win. However, when he got back in stride, he gave a stretch run for the ages only to come up ¾’s of a length short to finish second.
Rachel Alexandra got the win, but her owners are unsure about the Belmont.
There’s a long tradition in horse racing that directs the horses from the saddling barn to begin the post parade. The horses are led out of the barn to a walking area where they make a brief stop and one of the racing officials gives the call, ‘Riders up,’ and the jockey is given a leg up and into the saddle.
Question now is who’s the jockey that will climb aboard Mine that Bird on June 6th for the Belmont Stakes?
Last Monday morning trainer Chip Woolly announced that his choice for the Belmont was Mike Smith who rode Mine that Bird to a second place win in the Preakness. But later in the day Smith’s agent called Woolly and explained that a prior commitment to ride Madeo in the Charles Whittingham Memorial Handicap at Hollywood Park that day had to be honored.
So there you have it – for now.
Back at Churchill Downs, trainer Chip Woolly’s first priority is keeping Mine that Bird fit and ready for the Belmont. Second is the jockey situation. He said, ‘We’re going to make a decision pretty quick, so we’ll see what happens.’ Then he added, ‘Patience is probably the number one concern; is somebody patient and will they wait and see how things develop.’
And here’s my two cents for what they’re worth. I’d be looking for someone based at Belmont with patients and a jockey that knows every inch of ground on that big oval like the back of his or her hand. A jockey that knows how to win at a mile and one half on that two turn monster.
To keep up with the saga read my daily twitter reports in the sidebar of this blog or go to www.twitter.com/tombarnes39
Writers Notebook:
Writing a book is just part of the chain that eventually gets your book into the hands of the reader. Publishing and marketing are a large part of that process and to give you some ideas about marketing and sales during the next few weeks I plan to introduce you to some of those subjects by using my own reviews of the books.
Make Friends and Sell Books
John Kremer seems to live and breathe book marketing. One of his mottos is that selling is all about making friends and the more you work with 1001 Ways to Market your Book the sooner you recognize the truth in that statement. Connecting with people and networking is all about making friends.
The first time you thumb through the 700-page book you are almost overwhelmed by the daunting task ahead. Just turn a couple of pages and you’ll find the dedication. It’s only a few lines but near the bottom is a line filled with hope. John says, ‘Take your time. Do it right. And enjoy.’
Keep that in mind and do one task at a time. Then before you know it, you’ll be highlighting sections and marking page numbers for points of reference.
The book contains everything from Internet sales, websites, blogs and newsletters to bookstores and book fairs. And a whole lot more.
Tom Barnes -- Actor, Writer and Hurricane Hunter.
Check out my website for books, blogs, western legends, a literary icon, reviews and interviews. Also my novels The Goring Collection and Doc Holliday’s Road to Tombstone along with a non fiction remembrance of The Hurricane Hunters and Lost in the Bermuda Triangle.
www.tombarnes39.com
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